This time out, I have the second book in Christy Reece's Last Chance Rescue series, Return to Me (Ballantine). This time out, LCR founder Noah McCall needs the help of Samara Lyons. Only last year, he hurt Samara badly, and he's the last person she wants to see, let alone help. But once Noah explains the case he's working on, Samara can't say no, despite the attraction that still smolders between them. With several teenage girls gone missing recently, she has to help find them and permanently stop the men who're taking them. Having him in such close quarters while they work is in no way conducive to resisting that attraction either, as Noah moves into her apartment to work. But Noah's foolproof plan goes badly awry, and he's shot while Samara is grabbed in her guise of a teenage girl. Now he's got to get her back and deal with his own past at the same time, all before something even worse can happen to her. Samara is stronger than he realizes, though, and even after he gets her and the girls back, Noah pushes her away. This time, though, she decides she wants to make a difference, and her choice of jobs gets Noah's attention in a big way. I had big expectations for Noah's story, but in his own way, Noah is just as mean to Samara as Jordan was to Eden in the first book, leaving me quite disappointed in him. These LCR men seem to have a much harder time understanding their emotional needs than most men do, even real men with their own difficult pasts, and I'm just not sure I can really buy into it. I liked Samara, but after a little while, her determination is painful to watch as he knocks her down yet again. I expected to like this one better than Rescue Me, but I didn't. I still think Christy Reece is an author to be watched, but I'm wondering if her suspense might not be better than her romance at this point. This one has earned three of Cupid's five arrows.
Until next time, happy reading!
